I think I have the same problem with Excel Home 2013 version 15.0.4989.1000 and the recent update to 15.0.5007.1000
AHK version 1.1.27 worked ok, this only started happening since the AHK update to version 1.1.28 on February 11th

When I use any script in an Excel cell, date stamp, word replacement etc hotstrings do not work as they should (they do not 'fire')But if I type anything then Backspace then EG: ds or wfsl (see examples below) etc then it works
If I type a Space then ds or wfsl etc then it works

I have never needed to run as Admin in the past but I tried it and there was no change
I do put the end character Space and tried Enter etc but no change
Some hotstrings include * so no end character required but they don't work as they should either
See examples below

I just joined the forum looking for help with this, I use tons of hotstrings in excel and last week, after updating to the 1.1.28 version (i was using a really old version) hotstrings didn't work.

What i found out is that on excel the first character is ommited by ahk, if i start typing and later on i type a hotstring it works, but if the hotstring is the first thing I type it won't work. If I double click the cell or press F2 (entering edit mode on excel) the hotstring works as expected.

I think I am having a similar problem, however it is not that the autoreplace script does not work at all, within Excel, it is that it does not work when it is the first character typed in a cell.

For example if I had a autoreplace that replaced td with today's date and i typed "td Item Repairs" the td would not be replaced, however if I typed "Item Repairs for td" then the autoreplace would work.

I'm having the same problem.
E.g. :*:def
It works fine in Notepad and MS Word. But on Excel 2007 (on Windows 7) it fails the first time, but if I press space and try again, it works. If I do F2 then type the trigger, it works first time.
The hotstring works fine with v1.1.27.00, but not with v1.1.28.00. Thanks.

When you type the first key, the cell goes into edit mode.
But it seems, the cell has to be already in edit mode when the first key of the hotstring is pressed, to make it work. So backspacing and re-typing works, but also clicking the formula bar at the top before you start to type the first key of the hotstring, A third way is double-clicking the cell before typing the hotstring. All these methods cause 'edit mode' before the first key is typed. Without that, it fails.

- The thing is, if the hotstring recogniser is resetting *more* times than it used to, then in theory there wouldn't be a problem. Or am I missing something.
- Oh, perhaps it changes control focus as you type the first letter. So it's reset to blank *after* you've typed the first letter. The behaviour of the hotstrings below appears to coincide with this idea, type 'abc', get 'abbb'. (It's been baffling me for a few days.)